Mercado Ads Python API Docs | dltHub

Mercado Ads is an advertising (Product Ads) API from Mercado Libre that provides campaign, ad and metrics endpoints for managing and reporting on sponsored product ads. The REST API base URL is https://api.mercadolibre.com and All requests require an OAuth 2.0 Bearer access token in the Authorization header; many endpoints also require Api-Version header..

dlt is an open-source Python library that handles authentication, pagination, and schema evolution automatically. dlthub provides AI context files that enable code assistants to generate production-ready pipelines. Install with uv pip install "dlt[workspace]" and start loading Mercado Ads data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from Mercado Ads?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Mercado Ads:

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How do I authenticate with the Mercado Ads API?

Authenticate via OAuth 2.0: obtain client_id/client_secret and exchange for access_token. Include header 'Authorization: Bearer <ACCESS_TOKEN>' and 'Api-Version: 1' or '2' as required.

1. Get your credentials

1. Sign in to Mercado Libre Developers portal and create an application under My Apps.
2. Note client_id and client_secret for the app.
3. Configure redirect URI and scopes required for advertising/Product Ads (advertising/product_ads).
4. Use OAuth 2.0 authorization code flow to obtain an access token; exchange code for token via Mercado Libre token endpoint.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.mercado_ads_source]
client_id = "your_client_id"
client_secret = "your_client_secret"
access_token = "your_access_token"

dlt reads this automatically at runtime — never hardcode tokens in your pipeline script. For production environments, see setting up credentials with dlt for environment variable and vault-based options.

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How do I set up and run the pipeline?

Set up a virtual environment and install dlt:

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uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install "dlt[workspace]"

1. Install the dlt AI Workbench:

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dlt ai init --agent <your-agent> # <agent>: claude | cursor | codex

This installs project rules, a secrets management skill, appropriate ignore files, and configures the dlt MCP server for your agent. Learn more →

2. Install the rest-api-pipeline toolkit:

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dlt ai toolkit rest-api-pipeline install

This loads the skills and context about dlt the agent uses to build the pipeline iteratively, efficiently, and safely. The agent uses MCP tools to inspect credentials — it never needs to read your secrets.toml directly. Learn more →

3. Start LLM-assisted coding:

Use /find-source to load data from the Mercado Ads API into DuckDB.

The rest-api-pipeline toolkit takes over from here — it reads relevant API documentation, presents you with options for which endpoints to load, and follows a structured workflow to scaffold, debug, and validate the pipeline step by step.

4. Run the pipeline:

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python mercado_ads_pipeline.py

If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:

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Pipeline mercado_ads_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset mercado_ads_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/mercado_ads.duckdb location to store data
Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs

Inspect your pipeline and data:

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dlt pipeline mercado_ads_pipeline show

This opens the Pipeline Dashboard where you can verify pipeline state, load metrics, schema (tables, columns, types), and query the loaded data directly.

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Python pipeline example

This example loads advertisers and ads_search from the Mercado Ads API into DuckDB. It mirrors the endpoint and data selector configuration from the table above:

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import dlt
from dlt.sources.rest_api import RESTAPIConfig, rest_api_resources

@dlt.source
def mercado_ads_source(client_secret=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://api.mercadolibre.com",
            "auth": {
                "type": "bearer",
                "access_token": client_secret,
            },
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "advertisers", "endpoint": {"path": "advertising/advertisers?product_id=PADS", "data_selector": "advertisers"}},
            {"name": "ads_search", "endpoint": {"path": "marketplace/advertising/{site_id}/advertisers/{advertiser_id}/product_ads/ads/search", "data_selector": "results"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="mercado_ads_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="mercado_ads_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(mercado_ads_source())
    print(load_info)

To add more endpoints, append entries from the resource table to the "resources" list using the same name, path, and data_selector pattern.

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How do I query the loaded data?

Once the pipeline runs, dlt creates one table per resource. You can query with Python or SQL.

Python (pandas DataFrame):

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("mercado_ads_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.ads_search.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM mercado_ads_data.ads_search LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("mercado_ads_pipeline").dataset()
data.ads_search.df().head()

See how to explore your data in marimo Notebooks and how to query your data in Python with dataset.

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What destinations can I load Mercado Ads data to?

dlt supports loading into any of these destinations — only the destination parameter changes:

Change the destination in dlt.pipeline(destination="snowflake") and add credentials in .dlt/secrets.toml. See the full destinations list.

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Troubleshooting

Authentication failures

If you receive 401 Unauthorized ensure the Authorization header is 'Bearer <access_token>' and token is not expired. Refresh token or re-run OAuth flow if needed.

Permissions / Product not enabled

404 or 403 'No permissions found for user_id' indicates Product Ads not enabled for the user. Enable Product Ads in Mercado Libre account (Listings management > Advertising campaign) or ensure correct advertiser_id and site_id.

Pagination and metrics limits

Most list/metrics endpoints use limit and offset query parameters and return a "paging" object with offset, total, limit and last_item_id; results array commonly under "results". Metrics endpoints limit date range to 90 days.

Deprecated endpoints

Several legacy endpoints (e.g., /marketplace/advertising/product_ads/campaigns/{campaign_id}/ads/metrics) were deprecated and may return 404 after Feb 26, 2026; use the documented marketplace search endpoints.

Ensure that the API key is valid to avoid 401 Unauthorized errors. Also, verify endpoint paths and parameters to avoid 404 Not Found errors.

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Next steps

Continue your data engineering journey with the other toolkits of the dltHub AI Workbench:

• data-exploration — Build custom notebooks, charts, and dashboards for deeper analysis with marimo notebooks.
• dlthub-runtime — Deploy, schedule, and monitor your pipeline in production.

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dlt ai toolkit data-exploration install
dlt ai toolkit dlthub-runtime install

• How to deploy a pipeline
• How to explore your data in marimo Notebooks
• How to query your data in Python with dataset
• Join the dlt community on Slack